Songbird looks like an alien in GNOME desktop.

just to add my two-cents.... i agree: i love songbird (especially shiny new 1.0), but however i feather it (and given that i can already theme anything i want, i honestly, don't see the appeal of 'feathering'), it looks like a weirdo on my (gnome) desktop.

MY answer to laura's question is: yes, i would love to be able to have songbird adopt the native gnome theme. i'm sure i'm not the first person to recognize that this is the last significant-ish thing standing in the way of songbird REALLY taking off with gnome-linux users. the "feathering" just seems redundant when the possiblity of theming all aspects and applications on your desktop is already there.

better integration as far as native controls (taskbar, dock applets and etc.) and so on would also be radical, but if songbird becomes pretty-native-gnome-themable, i'm sure the gnome/awn/etc community will take care of all this stuff pretty quick.

(btw, i think there is a long commentary-squabble on these forums somewhere about this...disagreement about this seems silly to me...what could possibly be lost?)

NativeBird can help.

I tried NativeBird and it seems buggy for me. I too don't understand why it can't just adopt the existing window theme like firefox does.

I agree, it makes me feel uncomfortable to run this app when it looks so different.

I used nativebird also and found it to be pretty buggy. It's a good idea - though I would think a better idea for a default install for Songbird.

Apple is the one who forces people to take it's UI where-ever you go!

Otherwise, I love songbird and haven't found anything even close to what I want to use on Ubuntu.

The Addon MoreNative makes things much better.
But it would be awesome if Songbird could just take the default window theme that is currently used.

I think that, too. Also I like the ability to completely customize the Songbird, I also would like to have a fine "native skin", not only on gnome, but on Windows, too.

Like McFlow said, "MoreNative" is a big step in that direction, but it would be cool, if there were more native elements, like menu bar and scrollbars, to begin with. I hope someone keeps working on "MoreNative".

"MoreNative" is not an effective solution unless the Songbird authors are willing to incorporate its code and put it through the QA process like the rest of the application. I expect applications on my computer to use the standard OS user interface elements and look consistent. I'm sick of media players that worry more about being an art project that a usable application. Not following the native OS look and feel breaks my expectations as a user.

I agree. Seeing as I use GNU/Linux for the freedom and Songbird is taking on a very similar look as iTunes -- and Apple is one of the most restrictive and proprietary companies ever -- I dislike the look and behavior of Songbird. In fact, I don't even use it anymore, because of these problems. Songbird is much less of a media player then Rhythmbox.

I'd appreciate it if an employee would let us know when we can expect to see GTK support in Songbird. Starting Songbird is such a jarring experience on Linux and a constant frustration as it doesn't behave like every other app I use. Firefox has support...

I agree - in fact, I've been nudging this idea since i started dabbling with Songbird 0.2! None of us are suggesting the customization and feathering should be removed. By all means, develop that aspect as much as you like, but let us opt for the native desktop interface if that's what we're more comfortable with, or because that's just what floats our boat!

Not trying to push it, but bug #12484 is only partially related to the issue. I think most people here would like to see a Songbird feather that would just take the current desktop theme (be it Windows, Gnome, KDE or whatever) and use it for the application's look and feel. Let me stress the "feel" aspect of it, i.e., button and menu placement conventions, scroll-bars, etc.

Just to make sure: Gnome itself takes themes. This "gnome aware feather" for SB should follow the current theme and change when Gnome's theme changes. In other words: behave just like any other app.

I don't know if a feather can do that.

"I agree - in fact, I've been nudging this idea since i started dabbling with Songbird 0.2! None of us are suggesting the customization and feathering should be removed. By all means, develop that aspect as much as you like, but let us opt for the native desktop interface if that's what we're more comfortable with, or because that's just what floats our boat!"

whole heartily agree!, songbird needs a bit of gtk love ;)

and I don't run gnome, but pretty much everything I run minus songbird uses GTK

Just want to say, that I'm working on a Feather that takes the Systems - Theme. But it's very boring and a lot of work, so it might take some weeks or month, till it's acceptable.

However, maybe someone already wants to give it a try: http://addons.songbirdnest.com/addon/...

b.t.w - it's not just the looks
it's the entire GTK+ integration (compiz for example)

I do not want songbird adopting the gnome theme unless I ask it too. I find that to be a major pain when dealing with Rhythmbox and I like Songbird's design.